User blog:JeremyGU/Late Night
Since Jimmy is on The Tonight Show and Seth is on Late Night, I thought I'd post my thoughts on them. I'm doing a bit of an odd skip-over since I plan to add a section to my season 3 blog in a week or two, but I figured this stuff would be out of place in that blog. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is off to a good start. Jimmy's version of Late Night was rough once in a while... "Wheel of Carpet Samples?" Really? ...but it seems as though he ditched the weaker areas when he made the move. The material has been pretty strong since he started. Also, there's something about him that seems better-suited for the classier environment that is the new 6B set; the whole thing just has a better feel to it than his Late Night. After the whole Conan-Leno gaffe, I was more than a little pessimistic about the move that was taking place, but a week into it, I feel good about it. I think this is going to stick. That brings me to Late Night with Seth Meyers. Granted, I'm writing based upon only the first episode, so there's a good chance it will improve. But my initial impression? Ouch. I guess Seth didn't take enough time away from SNL to practice for this show. (He should have left at Christmas break at the latest; if he knew far enough ahead of time, he should've bowed out of SNL with Fred, Bill, and Jason at the end of season 38.) His monologue was like something from Weekend Update- jokes strung together with no transition of any kind. That came from what was the show's biggest weakness, and I suspect I know the reason. Both the monologue and his story about the flat tire was delivered with him buried in the camera- it was as though there was no studio audience present. I'm guessing everything was on a teleprompter. Seth: get some Obama-prompters or something. Get a good look at Jimmy, or Jay, or Conan. They aren't telling jokes to the camera; they're telling jokes to the audience. That's what was missing. And a few technical notes for Late Night's producers: *The lighting was harsh. It was top-light heavy; it needs better front lights and foot lights (which I'm guessing were missing entirely). *Wipe transitions shouldn't go beyond high school audio-visual. The Olympics segment used these odd diagonal-split wipes; I wouldn't ever use those again for anything. *And I'm still not even sure I saw this right, so I could be completely wrong on this one. Did I see correctly that they switched the frame rate to 24fps when the guests came walking out, then back to 60fps when they switched cameras as they got to their seats? It sure looked that way when Amy came out. If that was intentional, it looked... odd. 24fps might actually look decent for a late night show, but it definitely doesn't work to switch back and forth. So, we have to wait to see if this thing picks up. If not, with NBC being so cancel-happy, we may not see this show stick around long. (Let's face it- you've got seven months or so to convince the execs to keep you.) Edit 08:10, March 2, 2014 (UTC) After a week, Seth has gotten into a pretty good groove. You know what this shows? They didn't have him practice on any test audiences before the first show. I wanted to add something to this blog, because of something it looks like they changed, unless I didn't notice it before. People were mocking the doors on the set, that Seth is in front of during the monologue; I saw someone ask if Seth was hosting Jeopardy. On Friday, there was a curtain behind the doors. Seth came out, and rather than closing, the doors opened further to expose the curtain for the monologue. They closed afterward. Nice save, NBC. Kinda seems like they half-assed the set; I think too much prep time was spent on Tonight and not enough went into Late Night. The backdrop is decent, though; what they really need to change is the chairs. It sure looks like Seth is sitting at a Walmart off-the-shelf office chair. And the little stage for his desk and guest chairs- why is it so tiny? They barely fit! One thing that's not gelling well is the conversation with Fred immediately following the monologue. Seth feeds Fred a line, and Fred improvs. His improving is great, but improving off of a single line just doesn't lead that far. (There's a reason Whose Line had a more-involved setup.) It's not bad, but they ought to stop doing it every single show. Toss in some variety there. Also, the bits that have been done have created some SNL tie-ins. Earlier in the week we saw John Lutz, who was a major player in the Lorne Michaels/Tina Fey sitcom 30 Rock. The bit was good, but Lutz has a bad case of Samberg Syndrome.Samberg Syndrome: Named after Andy Samberg, it refers to a person who is so buried in the cue cards that they carry on conversations without looking at the other person. Then on Friday, Tim Robinson was on as Seth's sidekick. I wonder if his leaving the SNL cast was to ensure he had time to work both shows. After all, Bill Hader spoke well of his writing in some of the after-departure interviews. Notes Category:Blog posts